I need to send a personal "thank you" letter to BMW  the car saved my butt all weekend long. Clearly I suck  and am not worthy of driving the car. Im thinking about returning it BMW with an apology.

But, instead, Ill save my pennies and go to a driving school and give it one more shot

Question  for anyone who has been at Mid Ohio  did you have anyone time your lap(s). I think the best I did was 2 min 4 seconds (possibly 3)  which comes to 65.55 mph (assuming 2.258 mile course  not sure of this).

Im not sure, but I think someone's mom passed me in a Honda Odessy !@#@~!

If you feel bad your fist time, you will feel worse about your skills as a driver and everything you DONT know the second time you are out there.

The 3rd times the charm. Thats when you get the basics down and your mind opens up. You start absorbing and learning and the more you learn the more you will want to learn. And every time you go out after that becomes a major learning experience.

Your first two times you are out there to drive, see what its like, make mistakes, etc... So dont feel bad at all! After you get that out of the way - ego, pride, shame, all go out the window and you become a open minded student and everything is a learning experience

Thats how it was for me, at least. Believe me I know what you are talking about. The first time I went out, an instructor in a Mazda 3 kept owning me over and over loll

those times are just fine for a first timer. I am going this weekend with my Z4Mcoupe but it looks like we will have some rain to deal with. I know a a very good driver with a modified Porsche GT3 who does low 1:40s there. Best I have done is low 1:50s. The race cars you mention run a different course, they take the keyhole out and that saves them a few seconds as well...

The next time will be worse ???? I felt like crap this past weekend (feeling a bit better as the days go by) - don't know if I can take an even worse outting.

Thanks for the info on the times. I'd be happy keeping my 2:04 time if I could just be "smooth" doing it. Next year, I'm going to:
- sign up for the August session - at least I won't freeze while I'm being embarrassed
- learn what the heck "heel & toe" is
- get a helmet - won't help the driving, but I'll look better
- look into break pads - again, won't help the drving but make me feel safer

If your there next year, I sure could use some tips - I'd buy you lunch at cafe Mid Ohio, pretty decent burgers.